


Putting the Tattoos Together

by molly16



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen, I also had a tag that was too long, I mean it's a 50/50 shot, I said left wrist but I have no clue, alright guys, and I added another tattoo because it fit the story I was telling, but what wrist is that tattoo on anyway?, it explains Emma's tattoo, it still works better than the answer we got on the show, settle in for my second fic of the night, so I found out that was a thing, well it's on her left wrist now, which was no answer by the way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 11:31:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14354583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/molly16/pseuds/molly16
Summary: In a world where tattoos randomly show up on your body, Emma cannot figure out what her two mean.





	Putting the Tattoos Together

Everyone in Emma’s life had their first tattoo show up during their teenage years. Although she hadn’t paid all too much attention to what other people’s tattoos were, she was sure none of them were as confusing as the one she had had all her life. Apparently she had been born with it: a filled in raindrop with an outlined sun poking out from behind it. The little optimistic part of her brain interpreted it to mean that happiness will come after all the pain, but she has no clue. So, she ignores it.

Of course the second she meets Neal, another tattoo appears. This one is much more obnoxiously placed on the inside of her left wrist and it’s dark. It’s an incredibly faint outline of a flower. A daisy, maybe? She had never been good at identifying flowers. Maybe it was supposed to complement the other tattoo, that this was the sun coming out after all that rain, that something new was growing. Sappy as hell, but it works.

To her surprise, no new tattoos show up when she gets put in jail, but the daisy’s (that’s what she decided it was, even if it really isn’t) outline just got bolder. When she finds out she’s pregnant, it gets bolder again. When she gives up her kid, it gets much bolder. But after that, it stops boldening itself and it just looks like someone traced over it a few times with a pen. 

Ten years later, for the first time ever, she feels the tattoo on her foot change. It burns for a second, and when Emma all but flings off her shoe, she sees that the sun has been filled in with gold, which throws her for a loop. Before she has a chance to analyze that, there’s a knock at her door and she knows that it has something to do with that change on her foot. 

She opens the door to find a kid standing there, claiming to be her son. Even if he is her son, he shouldn’t have been able to find her and she knows whoever his parents are must be pissed. So, she takes him back to his house in a town called Storybrooke (really? who decided on that name?). Within a millisecond of passing into town, the inside of her wrist burns in the same way her foot did earlier that night, and she knows it’s no coincidence. It’s an annoyance and literal pain, but it is most definitely not a coincidence. 

It isn’t until years later that she puts together the meanings of her tattoos. The drop of sun since she’s a product of true love and the daisy from the Charming family crest. After her daisy tattoo finally stops changing, it has a filled in center, sharpie like outlines of the petals, and lines in the middle of each petal, except one. Only time will tell when that one will show up.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to give her another tattoo, the story wouldn't make sense to me without the one on her foot being there. And it works, so we're all good.


End file.
